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1. Unaccountable Adaptation: The Asian Development Bank’s overstated claims on climate adaptation finance

Author:
Sunil Acharya, Rasmus Bo Sørensen, and Hans Peter Dejgaard
Publication Date:
05-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Oxfam Publishing
Abstract:
Despite positioning itself as the ‘climate bank of Asia and the Pacific’, it is difficult to ascertain the Asian Development Bank’s claims of climate adaptation finance. Oxfam analysed the bank’s 2019–2023 climate finance portfolio and conducted a detailed assessment of 15 climate adaptation projects, comprising 43% of reported adaptation finance for FY 2021 and 2022. Oxfam found that the Asian Development Bank (ADB) hugely overstates the reported amounts with potential over-reporting of 44% in average for the assessed projects. This briefing paper calls for a transformative shift in the ADB’s adaptation finance strategies. The ADB must improve the accuracy and transparency of climate finance reporting and realign financial flows with the needs of the region's most vulnerable communities.
Topic:
Climate Change, Development, Finance, Accountability, Transparency, Adaptation, and Development Finance
Political Geography:
Asia

2. Asia’s Climate Finance Needs & Opportunities: Advancing a Shared Vision

Author:
Meera Gopal and Kate Logan
Publication Date:
06-2024
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Asia Society
Abstract:
Asia is home to over half of the world’s population and faces immense challenges from climate change impacts. Despite receiving more climate finance than other regions, Asia's needs far outpace current flows, highlighting the urgency for enhanced transparency and accelerated reforms. “Asia’s Climate Finance Needs & Opportunities: Advancing a Shared Vision” provides a comprehensive analysis of climate finance flows to developing countries in Asia, emphasizing the need for reforms to the global financial architecture. This report, launched by the Asia Society Policy Institute, takes stock of current financial flows, assesses how global financial reforms could enhance these flows, and offers recommendations for moving forward from an Asian perspective. The study highlights Asia's diverse climate finance needs, the role of China’s development finance in the region, and the challenges posed by varying needs across subregions. It underscores the importance of harmonizing data and standards to improve transparency and support equitable distribution of funds. Key recommendations include adopting a “whole-of-economy” approach, repurposing fossil fuel subsidies, and increasing finance for adaptation efforts by tapping into the private sector. These strategies aim to address the unique climate and development needs of Asia and support its transition towards sustainable growth.
Topic:
Reform, Climate Finance, Economic Growth, and Transparency
Political Geography:
Asia

3. Scoping Study on Contract Transparency in Mongolia

Author:
Dorjdari Namkhaijantsan and Zoljargal Naranbaatar
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Mongolia’s mining sector plays a crucial role in the economy, contributing to revenue and jobs, but faces significant challenges around governance, corruption and transparency. This scoping study highlights the importance of contract transparency to ensure fair and accountable management of the sector. This report presents the scoping study on Mongolia’s contract transparency, undertaken by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). The study was made possible with the support and funding of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) International Secretariat and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Topic:
Corruption, Governance, Mining, Transparency, and Contracts
Political Geography:
Mongolia, Asia, and Asia-Pacific

4. Scoping Study on Extractive Sector State Owned Enterprise Disclosures in Mongolia

Author:
Dorjdari Namkhaijantsan
Publication Date:
10-2024
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Natural Resource Governance Institute
Abstract:
Mongolia’s state-owned mining enterprises are crucial to the economy but face transparency and governance issues. This scoping study examines the need for improved disclosures and stronger accountability in the sector. This report presents the scoping study on the disclosures of Mongolia’s state-owned mining enterprises, conducted by the Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI). The study was supported and funded by the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) International Secretariat and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
Topic:
Corruption, Governance, Economy, Accountability, Mining, Transparency, Contracts, and State-Owned Enterprises
Political Geography:
Mongolia and Asia

5. China’s 2022 Defense Budget: Behind the Numbers

Author:
Amrita Jash
Publication Date:
04-2022
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
China Brief
Institution:
The Jamestown Foundation
Abstract:
At the fifth session of the 13th National People’s Congress in early March, the Chinese government announced a defense budget of 1.45 trillion yuan (about $229 billion) for fiscal year 2022, which is a 7.1 percent year-on-year increase from 2021 (Xinhua, March 5). After years of double digit increases in the 2000s and early 2010s, this is the seventh consecutive year that China’s defense spending has grown by single digits. Nevertheless, China has moved up in the global defense spending rankings, and is now second only to the United States in expenditures. In the Indo-Pacific region, China’s military spending increasingly dwarfs that of its neighbors. For example, China now spends more on its military than Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and India combined (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute [SIPRI], April 2021). For instance, at $229 billion, China’s military spending is three times that of India’s $70 billion figure for 2022 (The Economic Times, March 5). An increase in Beijing’s defense budget raises red flags for China’s neighbors and the U.S. given the growing tensions over Taiwan, the South China Sea, the East China Sea, and the Sino-Indian border dispute in the Himalayas. However, in Chinese eyes, as Beijing-based military expert Wei Dongxu argues, the budget is “proper and reasonable” (Global Times, March 5).
Topic:
Defense Policy, Military Affairs, Budget, and Transparency
Political Geography:
China and Asia

6. A New Estimate of China’s Military Expenditure

Author:
Nan Tian and Fei Su
Publication Date:
01-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Abstract:
China publishes a national defence budget each year. In 2019 it reached 1.2 trillion yuan (US$175 billion). However, this figure does not account for all of China’s military spending. To provide a more accurate representation of China’s spending, SIPRI’s estimate—based on an analysis made in 1999—includes other items in addition to the official defence budget. Given China’s accelerating military modernization and reforms in recent years, the existing estimate of China’s military spending deserves a reassessment. This SIPRI report provides a comprehensive new analysis of the financial resources China dedicates to military purposes. Using publicly available sources in both English and Chinese, the report presents a new estimate of Chinese military expenditure. The new estimate—1660 billion yuan ($240 billion) in 2019—is around 142 billion yuan ($21 billion) less than the old SIPRI estimate. Although the new approach to estimating Chinese military expenditure improves on the old method, limited public transparency in budgeting on specific categories is still a cause of concern. Future research should focus on publicly available Chinese-language sources as there is still scope to improve the precision of the new estimate.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Military Spending, and Transparency
Political Geography:
China and Asia

7. A Just Response to Beijing’s COVID-19 Abuses

Author:
David Asher, Miles M. Yu, David Feith, Matthew Zweig, and Thomas DiNanno
Publication Date:
06-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Hudson Institute
Abstract:
Nearly 18 months after word of a deadly new virus began leaking out of Wuhan, China, the Chinese government’s response remains fundamentally hostile to international cooperation and transparency. Despite hundreds of offers of assistance, polite diplomatic entreaties, and demands for access to data by governments and health authorities across the globe, the world still knows far too little about COVID-19’s origin. As in a Dali painting, the clocks have melted but time has not stood still. China’s initial silencing and censoring of its doctors and scientists, followed by misinformation about COVID-19’s dangers—especially denials concerning the virus’s ability to be spread human-to-human, invisibly and asymptomatically—helped cost the world trillions of dollars and millions of lives. Whether one believes COVID-19 originated in a zoonotic host, a bat cave, a frozen food shipment, or a Wuhan lab’s dangerous “dual-use” research supporting undeclared bioweapons programs, the world needs answers from the Chinese Communist Party. These are answers Beijing won’t provide unless it faces a high price for refusing. For the good of public health and international security, the Biden administration and the Congress can unite in a coordinated, long-term response.
Topic:
Security, Health, Research, Transparency, Public Health, and COVID-19
Political Geography:
China and Asia

8. Northeast Asia Defense Transparency Index 2020-21

Author:
M. Patrick Hulme and Tai Ming Cheung
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)
Abstract:
Growing distrust in East Asia, especially in the security arena, is increasingly critical as new and long-standing hotspots— including the Taiwan strait, Korean peninsula, East China Sea, and South China Sea—become more volatile. The need for confidence-building measures is clear, and a central tool of confidence building is defense transparency. The Defense Transparency Index (DTI), a project of the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, ranks six countries on their efforts to promote transparency in defense and national security, including the People’s Republic of China, Japan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the Republic of Korea, and the major external powers most involved in the region—the United States and Russia.
Topic:
Security, Defense Policy, Geopolitics, and Transparency
Political Geography:
Russia, Japan, Taiwan, East Asia, Asia, North Korea, Korea, East China, and United States of America

9. Forums, Fees and Data Flows: Coordinating Mining and Water Policy in Mongolia

Author:
Mirja Schoderer and Ines Dombrowsky
Publication Date:
01-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)
Abstract:
Mineral and metal extraction threatens water quantity and quality in Mongolia. While good legal provisions for coordination exist, a lack of stakeholder involvement, data availability, human and financial capacity, and general transparency and accountability hinder their implementation.
Topic:
Natural Resources, Water, Accountability, Mining, and Transparency
Political Geography:
Mongolia and Asia

10. Transparency in the Fight against the Coronavirus: The South Korean Example

Author:
Hülya Görkem Demirbulak Bae
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV)
Abstract:
South Korea constitutes an important example in fighting the pandemic. South Korea handled the process in a planned, rapid manner, and at the same time transparently. In fact, transparency has been one of the secrets of the country’s current success. In light of all of these developments, this essay will lay out how South Korea managed the coronavirus pandemic process and the policies it implemented, with a special emphasis on the role of transparency in the country’s fight.
Topic:
Accountability, Transparency, COVID-19, and Health Crisis
Political Geography:
Asia and South Korea